(Credit: Courtesy of San Diego Zoo)
(Inside Science) -- In 1975, medical doctor Kurt Benirschke founded the Center for the Reproduction of Endangered Species with the goal of using molecular genetics tools to save endangered species. In the corner of the modest lab, which contained a freezer with liquid nitrogen to bank cells, Benirschke hung a poster: “You must collect things for reasons you don’t yet understand.”
That credo holds true for scientists in cryobiology toda ...read more
A new study of obesity genes and different kinds of exercise finds that jogging is the best way to counteract weight gain. (Credit: By Giuseppe Elio Cammarata/Shutterstock)
Obesity is worldwide health problem tied to both nature and nurture. Genetic mutations make some people more likely to gain weight than others, but exercise lessens those chances. Now, some surprising new research suggests that certain exercises are better than others at counteracting these fat genes. For example, cycling ...read more
A type of tumor that can pass between dogs is showing researchers how cancer cells evolve. (Credit: Jess Wealleans/Shutterstock)
Thousands of years ago in Asia, a dog got cancer. A single cell underwent a mutation that turned it into the beginnings of a tumor. The dog eventually died, but not before passing on a unique legacy: its cancer cells.
Today, those cells are still growing in dogs across the globe. That’s because this particular kind of cancer cell turned out to possess an in ...read more
WASP-121b is so hot that the planet has puffed up beyond its ability to hold onto its own atmosphere, and is instead streaming it away as it flies around its star every 30 hours. (Credit: NASA/ESA/J. Olmsted/STScI)
Astronomers just used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to take the temperature of an exoplanet called WASP-121b and discovered that the world is so hot that heavy metals actually leak behind it as it whips about its central star. It's the first time scientists have seen such a phenom ...read more
Turtles, tortoises (shown here) and other reptiles change sex inside their eggs depending on the outside temperature. That trait has scientists worried that climate change may skew their populations toward one gender. (Credit: Seasoning17/Shutterstock)
Freshwater turtle nests dot the sandy shores of ponds throughout Asia. And like many reptiles, the embryos become males or females depending on how warm or cool their nests are. Females like it hot, scientists have noticed. That is, when it&rsq ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine